pdf - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Thomas BradwardineBradwardine extensively in his long defense of the propositionthat the Church of England historically stood in the line of theCalvinistic reformation.What possible influence Bradwardine's 900-page work mayhave had on the formulations ofthe Synod ofDordrecht cannot beknown. However, the case of Abraham van der Heyden makes itobvious that there was influence on some Reformed men in theNetherlands.Abraham van der Heyden was a preacher in the Netherlandswho took up the defense ofthe doctrines ofgrace after the Synodof Dordt by criticizing the catechism of the Remonstrants (published1640) constructed by Johannes Uytenbogaerd. Van derHeyden was answered by Simon Episcopius, a former professorofvan der Heyden at the University ofLeiden. Van der Heyden thenreplied in greater length. He consciously relied on Bradwardine inhis works. Both Uytenbogaerd and Episcopius ridiculed van derHeyden's use ofBradwardine, a "'popish bishop ofCanterbury wholived 250 years ago." Such scorn did not result in van der Heyden'sdistancing himself from Bradwardine in the defense of the doctrinesof Dordt. On the contrary, van der Heyden unashamedlytitled his second work, De causa Dei.It is plain that Bradwardine's The Cause ofGod enabled vander Heyden to trace the line ofthe truth back to Augustine. "Withthe exception of references to Episcopius, whose work van derHeyden was specifically answering, references to Augustine outnumbereven those to Calvin, the next most frequently citedauthority, by four or five times:'45Any serious evaluation of Bradwardine's significance affirmsthat predestination is a central element in his theology, ifnotthe cornerstone. Not since Gottschalk of the ninth century, andAugustine before him, had any theologian maintained this "harddoctrine" so faithfully or emphatically. Gottschalk died a martyrfor the sake ofthis truth; Bradwardine did not. Several factors (inGod's providence) account for Bradwardine's escape from condemnation.The first is the papal schism that greatly weakened the45. Tanis, Van der Heyden, p. 342.November, 2001 29